Useful tips for web developers, bloggers, and WordPress users | Brian's Developer Blog

Create a Working Copy of Your Amazon EC2 Instance for Development or Upgrade

February 6, 2014December 7, 2018 Sys Admin 2

After living with a free Amazon EC2 t1.micro instance for a while, I wanted to upgrade. The micro instance was great for playing with

The Best Cloud Invoicing Software for Freelancers: FreshBooks vs. Harvest

January 30, 2014June 12, 2020 Productivity 8

I finally decided that it was time to move from my primitive accounting “system” based on Word and Excel to a modern cloud-based solution

Create a “Slot Machine” Hover Effect with CSS

January 6, 2014April 12, 2020 Front End 2

A client requested a “slot machine” hover effect for their social network buttons. When you hover on the icon, it moves up, sort of

Make Your Chrome Browser Window Narrow for Mobile Web Development

December 11, 2013September 27, 2020 Developer 13

My “go to” desktop browser for doing web development is the Chrome browser. It’s got lots of cool plugins, and doesn’t crash as often

Crucial Items That Should Be In Your Website Launch Checklist

November 4, 2013May 29, 2020 Developer 4

This is a list of items to check before launching your site. I emphasize, this is not a complete list of things to check.

Host Multiple Sites on a Single Amazon EC2 Instance

September 27, 2013December 7, 2018 Sys Admin 94

Here’s how to host multiple sites on your EC2 instance running the Amazon Linux AMI. You might want to host different websites on a

Modify Your .htaccess File to Eliminate Query Strings and Make Pretty URLs

September 7, 2013December 7, 2018 Developer 3

I developed a website for a client that would display different photos based on a query string in the URL. An example of this

Style the WordPress Media Player!

August 9, 2013April 12, 2020 WordPress 191

The WordPress 3.6 Media Player came at just the right time for me. Just a month before, Yahoo discontinued their Yahoo Player, and I

How to Avoid and Deal with Mean Comments on Your Blog

May 23, 2013August 8, 2019 Blogging 10

Blogging can be a very personal experience. You’re baring your soul before the world. You are vulnerable. One of the worst things is to

Make Any WordPress Theme Responsive (Mobile-Friendly)

April 1, 2013February 10, 2018 WordPress 34

Here is the scenario: You’ve searched high and low and found the perfect WordPress theme for yourself or your client. But, there’s one big

Twelve Ways to Massively Speed Up Your WordPress Site

March 12, 2013May 2, 2020 WordPress 19

Is your WordPress site loading slowly? There is a cool tool called Pingdom which creates waterfall charts so you can see exactly what is slowing

Facebook Page vs. Group: Which is Right for Your Organization?

February 5, 2013February 10, 2018 Blogging 111

Much has been written about the differences between Facebook Pages and Groups. When I needed to decide which to use for a project, I

Dynamically Resize an iFrame Using jQuery

January 11, 2013December 6, 2018 Front End 3

I was given the task to fix a website bug of the following nature: There is an iframe containing a “submit” button. When the

Trademark Your Website or Blog Name

November 30, 2012February 10, 2018 Blogging 18

One of my blogs reached a level of popularity and income where I started thinking about trademarking the name of the site. I figured

Using Go Daddy Server with Different Domain Registrar

June 29, 2012June 22, 2019 Sys Admin 16

This is a pretty common thing to do, right? You have hosting at Go Daddy but your domain is registered with someone else, like

Add Your Website Icon to the Browser Tab

May 14, 2012August 7, 2019 Front End 45

The cool little icon that shows up in each web page’s browser tab is called a “favicon”. Adding this tiny detail really gives your

Make a Background of an Image Transparent

May 8, 2012December 6, 2018 Front End 5

Often times you’ll have an image, perhaps a logo, that you want to use on a website, and you’ll want that image to have

Make a WordPress Post Stay at the Top of the Page

February 22, 2012December 6, 2018 WordPress 1

Most WordPress landing pages either contain static information or the latest posts. But what if you want the both worlds – a landing page

Add Custom Fonts to Your Website

January 17, 2012February 10, 2018 Front End 0

Are you tired of using the same old boring web fonts? Without describing all of the browser compatibility problems in detail, here’s a quick